A third raid on an area home by federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents and various police agencies took place sometime early Tuesday morning, May 14, at a house on West Avenue, Darien police said.
But this latest raid is part of an investigation separate from the one connected to the two earlier raids, a DEA spokeswoman told Darienite.com.
One of those earlier raids took place at a home on Pine Brook Lane. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Connecticut said that Christopher Pomponi, 58, of Pine Brook Lane, was involved in distributing drugs.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Pomponi’s home on Pine Brook Lane, a small street off of Old Kings Highway North, was used to “store narcotics and drug proceeds, convert cocaine into crack cocaine and package narcotics for street sale.”
The May 14 raid, linked to both a search warrant and an arrest warrant, was conducted by police from Darien and Stamford, as well as the Southwest Regional Response Team and the DEA, Darien police said.
“The Darien Police Department advises that there is no current threat to the community,” said the announcement, which came from Police Chief Jeremiah Marron Jr. Marron did not say that there was any threat in the past.
In a statement similar to what police have said regarding two previous raids in which minimal information initially was given out, the announcement this morning said, “Due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, no further information is being released at this time.”
The announcement said requests for information should be made to an official at the Drug Enforcement Agency. Darienite.com left a message with Kristen Govostes, a spokeswoman for the DEA’s New England Division, which includes Fairfield County. Govostes confirmed that the two raids were connected to separate investigations but referred all inquiries to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Connecticut.
The Other Investigation
On Monday, April 29, Darien police announced that a raid involving DEA agents and other police with a search warrant and arrest warant had taken place that morning at a home on Pine Brook Lane. That same day, according to reports from Norwalk, a raid took place on Marlin Drive in Norwalk.
U.S. Attorney’s Office for Connecticut has announced that a man living on that street in Darien, Chris Pomponi, was one of six people arrested on charges related to selling drugs in the Norwalk area. The other arrestees are from Norwalk.
Here’s the text of that office’s news release (Darienite.com has put Pomponi’s name and information related to Darien in boldface):
Six Alleged Members of Norwalk-Area Drug Trafficking Ring Arrested
Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, Stephen Belleau, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration for New England, and Norwalk Police Chief James Walsh today announced that the following six individuals have been charged with federal offenses stemming from their alleged involvement in narcotics trafficking in and around Norwalk:
• JOSE ORJUELA, aka “Hov,” 35, of Norwalk
• KIMBERLY DELACRUZ, aka “K,” 29, of Norwalk
• JELSON PEREZ, aka “Spank,” 41, of Norwalk
• CHRISTOPHER POMPONI, 58, of Darien
• DARRELL SANDERS, aka “Deezo,” 54, of Norwalk
• ALEJANDRO MARTIN DE LOS SANTOS, aka “Marcelino Lopez,” 45, of Norwalk
As alleged in court documents and statements made in court, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Bridgeport High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force and Norwalk Police Department identified Orjuela as the leader of a drug trafficking organization that distributed large quantities of fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine in the Norwalk area.
The investigation, which has included court-authorized wiretaps and controlled purchases of narcotics, revealed that Orjuela and others transported kilogram-quantities of cocaine from Texas and Ohio, and kilogram-quantities of fentanyl and heroin from New York City, and distributed the narcotics in and around Norwalk through a network of individuals, including Perez, Pomponi, and Sanders.
At times, De Los Santos supplied the Orjuela organization with narcotics. Orjuela and his girlfriend, Delacruz, stored narcotics and drug proceeds at their Marlin Drive residence in Norwalk, and also used Pomponi’s Pine Brook Lane residence in Darien to store narcotics and drug proceeds, convert cocaine into crack cocaine, and package narcotics for street sale.
On April 29, 2024, Orjuela, Delacruz, Perez, Pomponi, Sanders and De Los Santos were arrested on federal criminal complaints charging each with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, and to distribute, controlled substances; possession with intent to distribute controlled substances; and use of a telephone to facilitate a narcotics trafficking felony. Pomponi is also charged with using or maintaining a drug-involved premises. Several additional individuals were arrested on related state charges.
In association with the arrests, investigators executed multiple federal search warrants and seized approximately 15,000 dose bags of suspected fentanyl, approximately 350 grams of raw heroin, quantities of cocaine and crack cocaine, a 9mm handgun and ammunition, and a 2021 Ford F-150.
Orjuela, Perez, Pomponi, Sanders, and De Los Santos are detained, and Delacruz is released on bond.
U.S. Attorney Avery stressed that an indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. Charges are only allegations and each defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
This ongoing investigation is being conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Bridgeport High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force, the Norwalk Police Department, the Darien Police Department, the Stamford Police Department, and the U.S. Marshals Service. The Task Force includes personnel from the DEA Bridgeport Resident Office, the Connecticut State Police, and the Norwalk, Stamford, Stratford, Milford, and Danbury Police Departments.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lauren C. Clark and Kenneth L. Gresham through the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) Program. OCDETF identifies, disrupts and dismantles drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs and transnational criminal organizations through a prosecutor-led and intelligence-driven approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.